Employment on the rise in U.S. plastics industry
After falling for a decade, employment in the U.S. plastics industry grew in 2011. The number of people employed in plastics was only up by 2%, but that figure, above many other positives ones reported by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI), hinted at prospective growth for a sector that has been battered over the first 10 years of the 21st century.
December 17, 2012
Bill Carteaux, SPI president and CEO, and Michael Taylor, senior director of international trade, offered that highlight and others from two new industry reports: Global Trends and Size and Impacts Study. Carteaux called the U.S. plastics industry "resilient" in the opening remarks of the teleconference, noting that the segment had "fared significantly better than other manufacturing sectors."
Smaller in size, bigger in output
The 2011 statistics for production and trade showed an industry that is smaller than it was in 2000 in terms of total employment and businesses but one that actually has higher value of output.
The U.S. plastics industry shipped goods worth more than $380 billion in 2011, up 12% from 2010. That growth helped the sector maintain its rank as the third largest manufacturing segment in the U.S. The plastics industry employed 885,000 workers across 16,298 facilities in 2011, with operations in every state. Its annual payroll totaled more than $40 billion, with capital expenditures exceeding $9.4 billion.
While the total number of employees has dropped from 1.1 million in 2005, to 885,000 today, the value of shipments over that same time has actually increased from $301.1 billion to $380.4 billion.
Going back to 2000, total employment is down 35%, reflected in part by a contraction in the total number of businesses, which shrunk by 22% over the last 11 years. The value of industrial shipments in plastics products manufacturing is 30% higher than in the year 2000, despite that contraction.
Top states for plastics
The top employers by state in 2011 were California (74,900), Ohio (67,700), Texas (67,500), Michigan (60,300), Illinois (54,000), Pennsylvania (46,400), Indiana (43,600), Wisconsin (35,000), New York (31,400), and North Carolina (31,300).
In terms of plastics concentration, looking at plastics employees/1000 non-farm employees, the top five states were: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and South Carolina.
While overall employment in manufacturing has contracted by 1.6% since 1980, plastics employment has actually grown, albeit only 0.1%. The value of shipments over that same time has expanded by 2.5%, well outpacing the rest of the manufacturing sector at 0.1%.
Resin the top export, trade surplus expands
The value of plastics goods exported in 2011 was up 9.5% to $58.6 billion, with the highest growth (plus 10%) and most value ($34.7 billion) coming from resins, followed by products (up 8.8% to $22 billion), machinery (up 14% to $1.4 billion), and molds (down 2.3% to $501 million).
At the same time, plastics imports were up 13.2% for $42.3 billion, resulting in a positive plastics trade surplus of 2011 of $16.3 billion. That figure was up 1% from 2010's surplus of $16.2 billion. Consumption of plastics industry goods grew as well, rising 11.9% to $255.4 billion.
Brazil now a top export destination
The top destinations for exports were Mexico, Canada, China, Belgium, and Brazil, with Brazil knocking Japan out of the fifth spot. The U.S. plastics industry's largest trade deficit was with China, registering $5.9 billion in 2011. The top sources for plastics industry imports were Canada, China, Mexico, Germany, and Japan.
Deficit stabilizes, challenges ahead
Taylor noted that the total plastics product trade balance seems to be stabilizing and "perhaps even improving." Despite the mostly positive news, Taylor and Carteaux said that going forward there is a high degree of "external circumstances" that could impact business in 2013, including the fiscal cliff negotiations and instability in the Euro zone.
On the plus side, both felt that the U.S. plastics industry would benefit from new trade deals with Korea, Colombia, Panama, and Russia. They also believed that low cost from shale was helping the plastics industry "disproportionately" compared to other manufacturing sectors.
Through the first nine months of 2012, exports were up in products (up 4.5% to $17.3 billion), machinery (up 7.7% to $1.1 billion), and molds (up 17.5% to $442 million). Only resin was down, dropping 3% to $25.7 billion.
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